← Strategy Hour | Online Marketing for Business Growth
Strategy Hour | Online Marketing for Business Growth
950: Your Audience Is Craving Dopamine, Not Information
00:25:00
It’s time to adapt to these shifts and create content that resonates on a deeper, emotional level.
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Transcript11 lines
- [00:00]
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The moment we start storytelling and the moment we start talking about emotion. It's very easy to attract wrong fit people because they're not emotionally ready for what it is that you sell.
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Welcome to the Strategy Hour podcast brought to you by Boss Project. I'm your host, Abigail Pumphrey, and I'm dedicated to supporting online businesses. I don't believe in one right way to build a business. I'm here to help you build business your business, your way. One that supports not only the life you have, but the life you want. I'm on a personal mission to help you become financially free. I'm taking all the lessons learned as I turned a layoff into a seven figure online business. I'm here to help you prioritize your life every step of the way. Whether you're creating your first digital product, growing an email list, or scaling an already profitable business. Settle in. It's time to talk strategy.
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Your audience is addicted not to your content, but to dopamine. Fast, fleeting, bite sized hits of it. And if your marketing isn't delivering those micro hits of satisfaction, they're scrolling right past it. In this episode, I'm unpacking how I'm rethinking everything from what I post to how I write. Not to teach better, but to feel better, to consume. Because that's what people are responding to right now. What we've all been told about marketing, especially for the last 10 years, is more value, more info, more teaching, right? But the way people consume content has shifted. People have shorter attention spans than ever. They are scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. Now it has its own nickname, doom scrolling. And people are making emotional first decisions that aren't always baked in logic. The way social media is designed is to get people to stay on the platform. And the reason it's designed that way is because the longer you're on the platform, the more ads you can consume. And the more ads you can consume, the more ad spots they can sell to other businesses. And that's going to help them make more money. And so over the years, you've seen all of the apps, including newer ones, make these micro adjustments a little bit at a time to get you to stay a little bit longer. But it also means that it's not always serving up content that is making people scroll away quickly. It's working for content where they have to sit with it a minute and they have to actually feel something because the longer they feel something, the longer they're going to stay. If they're like, oh, this is interesting, I could Learn something from it. They might save it, but immediately scroll past it and not actually even consume all of the content. But I suppose we have to back up and talk about what dopamine is first. Dopamine is a brain chemical, and it is released in your body and is specifically tied to pleasure, motivation, and reward. And that's why we keep scrolling. It's why we reach for the next video. That's why we hit next. Not because we need it, but because it feels good. Yes, people want value. I'm not denying that. They want to actually move their business forward or their life forward or whatever industry you're ultimately serving. But more than anything else, the reason they're on Social in the first place is that they're looking for a feeling. It might be to overcome boredom, it might be to be entertained. It might be because they're looking for a solution, but they're searching for something. And sometimes, especially when we're just talking about scrolling rather than going to a platform to find something, because that's how the majority of people are using Social anyway, is they're opening it by default. And you want them to stay right. We all do. So I think it's really easy to understand the concept, but how do we actually do that in practice? How do we deliver more dopamine? How do we get people to stay on our content longer? And it really reminds me of this concept that I have seen circulating the Internet a lot more lately about what they call dopamine dressing or dopamine decorating. And the thought is that you surround yourself, regardless of style choices, regardless if it makes sense together or not. You surround yourself with color, style, design, pattern that make you feel instant joy or excitement. It's less about what's trendy or what's logical. It's more about what sparks emotion fast. And people are leaning into this. They're changing their closets, they're changing their homes. We're seeing this return of maximalism. And I'm not saying everyone who has a neutral aesthetic needs to change their whole vibe to this vibrant thing. That's not necessarily what I'm talking about. But if we think about your best conscience as the equivalent to a dopamine outfit, how is it immediately sparking or giving instant energy? It doesn't always have to be the deepest thing. Like, it can just make people feel something enough to stop, engage, save, share. Like a friend. She's a florist, mind you. She does beautiful installations. But I'm not a florist. I never planned to be a florist. But I do follow her content. And she recently got a farm. And yesterday there was a new miniature horse. A miniature horse, baby donkeys, two alpacas, and one of the alpacas is pregnant. Let me tell you, I was hanging around, I was here for it. I wanted to consume all of those things. Now, what can feel a little bit odd about satisfying some of those feelings is it can feel so unrelated that you're concerned that you're going to potentially attract someone that is not your ideal client. And that may be true, but there are some ways we can rethink that a little bit. Maybe they're not your perfect client, but what if they enjoy your content so much that they look at it again and again and again and then they're, you know, at coffee with a friend or they're meeting with a colleague or whatever and someone asks a question and an instantly, you're the person that comes to mind because someone who's not your ideal audience has been consuming your content for a long time. Now. I know what some of you are thinking. You're like, my life isn't that interesting. I didn't just go get a miniature horse and I don't have anything to say that would be that way. And I think you just think your life is a lot more boring than it really is. One, two. It's not necessarily about material things or what your life is like. You don't necessarily have to be sharing experiences or moments of your day to take advantage of focusing on a dopamine hit. The old mindset was, here's more info, here's everything you need to know. Let me give you steps, let me give you lists, Let me give you everything you need. And more and more and more, we are seeing the content that is really working, doing things differently. And it's not to say that we're not going to think about value, but the first thought is, how can I spark a feeling? And you can think about what feeling you're aiming for. Curiosity, laughter, validation, empowerment, what do you want someone to feel? And then you can deliver and bake in the value. So here's a couple of different ways you can think about it. You can prioritize visuals first. You can do things that are brighter or more emotional or more casual. Not just like polished professional esthetic, you can have polished professional aesthetic. But if you're going to do that, how are you making it make someone smile or make someone reflective or make someone be nostalgic? We're thinking about the feeling. Next up, you can really lean into bite sized takeaways. As much as we want to focus on getting people to consume our content and stay longer, long explanations aren't always the way to do it. I want you to think about quick wins. So if you are going to teach them something, rather than teaching them something that they're going to have to use six months down the line or repetitiously to get any sort of benefit out of what is something you could say now that they could implement or use now and make a difference in their life now. You can also lean more into storytelling over teaching, leading with more personal stories or emotional moments before dropping tips and strategies. I know in the grand scheme of things this is all cyclical. Like this is things that have worked before, but this is what's working again now. There's kind of this movement away from the gurus, the experts, the people who seem to have their life all together. People want to feel like they're like you or that you understand them before they buy from you. If you feel too untouchable, like if your life looks too perfect, they might still respect you, but they're less likely to purchase from you because now you're on a pedestal in a position that they don't think they can ever get to. And so even as your business grows or you become more successful or you're better at insert whatever thing in your industry, how can you show the flaws? How can you show the bad days? How can you show the doubts or the fears or the things that scare you? And sometimes it feels really vulnerable and scary to do that in the moment. In some ways it is easier to produce content based on feelings you're feeling right now. But if that's too much for you, you can always go back and revisit older moments. Look back on how you went through a certain process or had a certain awakening or became successful in this particular area. How are you feeling then? And instead of saying here's what I did to get there, how can you talk about here's how I felt along that journey?
- [11:46]
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Want to learn exactly step by step how to get paid to generate leads in your business? I'm ready to give you the exact steps that help me generate tens of thousands of qualified leads and millions in.
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Low ticket digital product sales.
- [11:59]
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I won't just show you what I did, but teach you how you can do it too. I'm talking not just how to create low ticket digital products, but also showing you how to use them strategically to generate leads for your other existing or future offers. I'm sharing it all@bossproject.com jumpstart including exactly how I made $8033 and generated 277 leads my very first month selling digital products. Find out more at bossproject.com jumpstart May is Small Business Month and FreshBooks is here to support your business with special savings. FreshBooks is the user friendly accounting platform for your business. Switch to FreshBooks for a better accounting experience. No more late nights drowning in paperwork or searching for lost receipts. Snap photos of your expenses on the go, send professional invoices in seconds and track payments seamlessly. FreshBooks automates invoicing and expenses, processes payments, connects bank accounts, and provides real time reporting. Streamline your bookkeeping with FreshBooks today. Switching to FreshBooks has never been easier. Even if you're coming from another accounting tool. FreshBooks makes migrating your data simple and their support team is ready if you need help. Happy Small Business Month. Celebrate with special savings from FreshBooks. Get FreshBooks 50% off for 6 months@freshbooks.com that's 50% off for 6 months@FreshBooks.com we're.
- [13:29]
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Inviting in emotion, not just logic. Content that feels fun, beautiful, exciting, relatable, then backs it up with real substance. So yes, some of it can be things that don't make sense at all for your industry and that's fine because it adds a level of personality, but other times it can just be the spice next to the stuff you already wanted to share anyway. I think it's really easy to convince ourselves that we don't need to change, that we can just keep doing what we've been doing and it's going to work. And usually what ends up happening is that it does work for a while, but it slowly gets more diminishing returns. Meaning you put in the same level of work, but you're getting less reward for that effort. Instead, I want you to be thinking about how can I put the same level of effort or potentially even less, but have the reward grow? That's what we want on social we want to expand what would be possible all by ourselves. So I need you to reframe content as emotional currency. People are making micro decisions all of the time, including when to comment, when to save, when to like, when to share based on how you make them feel before they even absorb what you're selling or saying. If your brand or content feels good to engage with, people will keep coming back and trusting you. Now if this is something you're going to lean into, I want you to consider who you really want to be here, who you really want to be consuming your content. Because the moment we start storytelling and the moment we start talking about emotion, it's very easy to attract wrong fit people because they're not emotionally ready for what it is that you sell. What do I mean by that? You can talk about moments that you felt stuck or challenged or even defeated. But if the narrative is that you felt defeated and then you rested, and then your offer has nothing to do with rest, maybe it has something to do with taking action. That means that you're bringing people in that need the rest before they can interact or buy from you. You want people who are having the feelings that they're going to have when they're stuck right before whatever it is that you offer. Those are the feelings you need to get stuck on. And if you're trying to attract more people like you that are maybe further along in their journey, then you talking about what's going on now today. And less reflective stuff is going to make it easier to bring people in that are at the same level, almost peer level. So I know this sounds obvious, but also somehow counterintuitive, but if you think back to the way Instagram was, like circa 2014, right? People were posting whatever they wanted to without a rhyme or reason, where they went, what they did. This was before stories. So they were documenting their lives, what they ate for lunch. It was just chaos. And people are craving some of that chaos. They're craving connection, they're craving relationships. And so rather than you analyzing, does this fit the strategy? Does this make sense? Does this follow the pattern I've been using? Is this the right graphic that goes with my brand? All of those things? Before you prioritize that, I want you thinking about what do I feel like posting? What would resonate with me right now or what would resonate with them? What do I know they're going through? And how can I reach someone who's going through that specific thing? If you lead with those questions, the what you post, it becomes far more automatic. You have to spend a lot less time thinking about specific topics and how you can make your content different. This will give you freedom. I mean, some of my best performing posts have been completely unrelated to business, but because they're sprinkled and peppered in amongst things that are all business, the majority of people interacting with them are still my ideal client. I've shared what I'm pinning on Pinterest lately. Right before Valentine's Day, I did this post about how I would rate different flowers to, like, steer my husband in the right direction. I've done photo dumps of, like, trips. I've shared the raw and real feelings, even when they're not fun, even when you're not sure what to do or what to say or what to post. I've said those things out loud and people resonate with that. So it's easy to kind of get into your feels when you start thinking in this way. So instead of like getting to the point where you're like, saddened by or too low, I really do want you to think about what's something I would just want to consume today and thinking about how can your content feel like a dopamine closet that someone could walk into instead of just filing into a cabinet that they could, like, come and get later? You want someone who's like, captivated by what you have rather than just thinking, oh, this will be helpful down the line. So I don't want you to wait. I don't want you to overthink this. I want you to post something today that feels a little bit out of the box for you, that doesn't fit exactly the way you've been doing your content, but that just feels good. How can you produce more of the type of content you would want to consume? Think about that. I know I'm at the point in my business where I don't want to learn something every day. I know what I need to know. I just need to do it. And I need to rest and enjoy my life in between. So think about your ideal client. What do they need to see today? What would make them smile? What would make them feel seen and heard? Or what would make them laugh? Pick one thing, post it. Invite people to DM you or comment, start a conversation. And please, I want to see it. Like, if you post something that you just feel like is totally out of the box, tag me in the comments or share it with me in DMs. I would love to take a look. I'd love to give you feedback. I'm here to support you. You can find my profile at Boss Project on Instagram and then my personal profile at Abigail says is linked up for you there. So I can't wait to see what you post. It's going to be fantastic and I hope this new lens gives you some peace of mind that you can go a little wild and crazy and it's not going to matter. It's actually going to help.
- [21:25]
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Hey, a few quick favors before you leave. I'd love if you'd share today's episode, send it to a friend who needs to hear it and post on social. You can show us where you're listening from, your favorite takeaway or why someone else should listen. Be sure to tag me, Abigail says, and bossproject so we can share it.
- [21:42]
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Okay.
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Second favor to get podcast updates and all the behind the scenes news from Boss Project. I'd love if you'd join my VIP list. Just head to bossproject.com signup to make sure I have all your contact details. Really love this show. It would mean so much to me if you'd leave a rating and review. It not only helps more listeners find the show, but allows us to bring on quality sponsors so we can keep bringing you this valuable content for free. Thanks so much for listening.
- [22:09]
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Until next time.